Agostino Carracci Italian, 1557-1602

Agostino Carracci (Bologna, Italy, 1557 – Parma, Italy, 1602)

Agostino Carracci, son of Antonio and elder brother of Annibale, was born in Bologna in 1557.

Together with his brother, he trained first with Prospero Fontana, and later with Bartolomeo Passarotti and Domenico Tibaldi.

Agostino began his career as an engraver, reproducing the paintings of renowned Bolognese artists such as Lorenzo Sabbatini, Orazio Samacchini and Denijs Calvaer. In 1582, he travelled to Venice, where his engraving skills gained widespread appreciation. There, he refined his technique by studying the works of masters such as Tintoretto and Veronese, gradually departing from the late Mannerist Bolognese style.

His skills as an engraver were so widely recognised that he was considered the best Italian engraver of his time, developing a graphic technique that set a standard for a long time.

Considered as a prominent intellectual, Agostino put both his artistic talent and his great erudition at the service of the famous “Accademia degli Incamminati”. Founded in Bologna around 1582 together with his brother and his cousin, it aimed to teach students the meticulous reproduction of reality, following Vasari's principles of verisimilitude.

From 1582 to 1594 he collaborated with his brother Annibale and with his cousin Ludovico Carracci on the collective painting of the frescoes in three prestigious palaces in Bologna: Fava and Sampieri in Bologna, and Magnani in Reggio Emilia.

The frescoes executed for Palazzo Magnani, depicting the Stories of the Founding of Rome, play a fundamental role in Carracci's reform of painting.

In the following years, he returned to Rome to work at Palazzo Farnese. From 1600, he tirelessly decorated the ceiling of Palazzo del Giardino in Parma. Unfortunately, his efforts were interrupted as his health deteriorated.

He died in Parma in 1602.

Photo UniCredit Group